Industries, trade and commerce

Medieval India was one of the world's great manufacturing and trading regions, exporting cotton textiles, indigo, spices, and other goods across the Indian Ocean and overland to Central Asia. Production was organised in towns and villages by artisans, weavers, and merchant groups, while ports such as Surat, Cambay, and Masulipatam linked inland markets to foreign buyers. A concrete example is Gujarati cotton cloth, woven in villages and towns, finished in port cities, and shipped to markets in West Asia, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Trade therefore shaped not only wealth but also state policy on ports, customs, and coinage.